I’m reading flight schedules, and whatever book is next up on my iPad today. If everything went right, my sister and I are flying back to Columbus today, and then I’m driving home tomorrow. As you know, I’ve been in New York City this week. My first flight in over three years, and first trip except to see family in the last couple years.
But, I hope you all take time to drop by and let everyone know what you’re reading. I hope you had a good week. I’ll catch up when I can!
Hope you had a great time, Lesa, and the weather cooperated. We’ve got another two weeks down here before we head home too. And Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who are Irish.
My reading has picked up somewhat this week, with a few quick reads, but there are still too many books I just haven’t been able to get into. First I read Quicksilver by Dean Koontz, previously mentioned. I liked it for the most part, as Quinn Quicksilver and his newly made friends seem to be on a quest while avoiding the (somewhat cliched) evil government agents tracking them for undoubtedly nefarious purposes. But for me it sort of petered out towards the end, as their fight with some “forces of evil” was more of an anticlimax than anything else. I’m guessing there will be a sequel.
Next was the latest “last” Quarry book from Max Allan Collins, Quarry’s Blood. The retired hitman, now widowed and approaching 70, is living quietly in Minnesota after the previous books, when once again a hit team shows up and tries to kill him. (Of course, he easily gets the better of them, or we wouldn’t have a series.) But which of his past actions have brought this on? Who of the many possibilities wants him dead? Then the book takes a turn when a woman shows up at his door, a true crime writer who has written about him in the past, From then on, it is the usual roller coaster ride with twists, as Quarry revisits some old haunts and previous “acquaintances” along the way. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him again.
I’ve been a big fan of Bill Pronzini’s books even longer than I have of Collins, close to 50 years now. Besides his various series and stand alone mysteries, I’ve read a ton of his short stories and all the collections I knew about. Yet somehow, I missed 2015’s Dago Red: Stories of Dark Suspense until I read about it on another blog. I’d read a few of the stories previously, including two Nameless” stories, bu was happy to reread them along with the rest that were new to me.
The late Donald E. Westlake was another author I rarely missed, being up there with Pronzini and Collins in my Most Read Top Ten list. Since he died in 2008, Hard Case Crime has published several posthumous books. The latest, and probably the last, is not really a mystery at all. It is Call Me a Cab, written in the late 1970s and never published before. A young woman has promised to come to Los Angeles and tell her fiance once and for all whether or not she will marry him. TO put it off as long as possible while she decides, she gets Tom, a divorced 30 year old driving his father’s taxi, to drive her cross country while she weighs the pros and cons. What follows is a week long road trip across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado (mostly) while they drive, talk, eat, sleep at virtually identical Holiday Inns, and yet it kept me quickly turning pages in the short time it took me to finish it.
I am still undecided on what to read next. I’ve started three different books and I’m considering a couple of others, but so far none of them has grabbed me. Jackie loved the J. D. Robb ABANDONED IN DEATH and now she is reading the Louise Penny-Hillary Clinton book, STATE OF TERROR.
After the Pronzini, I am reading the John Lutz collection, Until You Are Dead, and Robert Aickman’s Compulsory Games as well as Gil Brewer’s collection of pulp stories, <b?Death Comes Last. Not sure about the last two
Jeff, Call Me a Cab sounds just odd enough for me to enjoy. I will give it a try.
I thought Jackie would love Abandoned in Death! Now she’s probably, like me, already ready to read the next in the series. I look forward to hearing what she thinks of State of Terror. I loved it.
Good morning, all! Here’s what I’ve been reading this week.
I think I’ve read most of Cleo Coyle’s long-running Coffeehouse Mystery series–HONEY ROASTED is number 19! The manager of a popular coffeehouse owned by her ex-mother-in-law, Clare loves to create original brews for the pleasure of her customers. Her newest concoction features honey obtained from a prominent local beekeeper, Bea Hastings, who is gravely injured by what appears to be a fall from her rooftop hive area. The police quickly chalk it up to suicide, but Clare is skeptical. It seems that some of Bea’s entrepreneurial ventures have alienated more than a few business owners. Besides investigating the situation, along with her colleague/ex-husband, Clare is also planning her own wedding. But her police lieutenant fiance has thrown himself into his work to the point where Clare doesn’t see him as much as she would like. Is he having second thoughts? I particularly enjoyed the details about honey roasting of coffee (there is no actual honey involved) and beekeeping. I also like spending time with the regular series characters.
THE FOOL DIES LAST, the first in Carol Miller’s new Fortune Telling Mystery series is a light cozy that focuses on thirtyish sisters Hope and Summer, who run a mystic-themed shop in Asheville, North Carolina. Hope also reads palms but stopped offering Tarot card readings after a tragic event that is explained later in the novel. Their grandmother lives in a local senior residence with her elderly beau. When women start dying and a Tarot card is found near each body, the sisters fear for their Gram’s safety and try to figure out who might be the next victim and why. I found this a pleasant read and hope there will be more in the series. However, I would like to see the sisters fleshed out more and the supporting characters made more realistic. One of the potential love interests, for example, is portrayed as largely unlikeable, and the murderer’s motive and dialogue strain credulity. I liked the paranormal sub-theme and look forward to finding out why the sisters’ attic seems to have a violent streak of its own. (April)
Shauna Robinson’s debut novel, MUST LOE BOOKS, is an in-depth portrayal of Nora Hughes, who has labored for 5 years as an editorial assistant at Parsons Press, only to find herself still bogged down by administrative minutiae and demanding managers. To make it worse, company layoffs have increased the size of her job and cut her barely-living-wage salary by 15%. As Nora struggles to find a meaningful job that will meet her financial needs and keep her from dark thoughts about her own life, she makes a choice that allows her to pay her bills but could ruin her career in publishing. I was thoroughly engrossed in Nora’s plight and worried about her future, thanks to Robinson’s intense but accessible plot and writing style. There is a bit of potential romance thrown in, but this doesn’t qualify as a romance. I would love to see a sequel, as there are several issues that remain unresolved, and I am eager to know what’s next for Nora.
Mary Kay Andrews has produced a string of 30 bestsellers in 30 years and is still going strong. One of her preferred settings is Savannah, Georgia, and she does it proud in her latest beach read, THE HOMEWRECKERS. The book’s title is also the name of a new reality show that will showcase the restoration of a rundown Savannah beach house which was recently repossessed from the owner family for failure to pay overdue property taxes. Young widow Hattie has loved her job of restoring and selling houses for almost 15 years, but her latest project has proven to be a disaster, leaving her with more unpaid loans than she can handle. So when she is approached to host the reality show, along with Trae, an experienced show business personality, she grudgingly agrees. Hattie knows she will have to meet an overly ambitious timeline and deal with her amorous co-host, but she never expected to find the wallet of her favorite high school teacher concealed in one of the house’s cabinets, not to mention another grisly surprise on the property. The teacher had disappeared one night years ago and never been found, leaving family–including a 4-year-old daughter–and friends stymied and saddened. There is much to enjoy in the novel, including a feisty protagonist and her attempts to embrace an unfamiliar role and unrealistic expectations while remaining true to who she is. The details of how the restoration was carried out are fascinating, and the mystery is well developed. I would have appreciated a bit more realism regarding a potential romance between Hattie and the show’s producer, but overall I can recommend the book as escapist reading during troubled times.
Margie, I agree with everything you said about The Homewreckers. The writing regarding that particular romance seemed a little weak compared to the rest of a very well written novel. I join you in recommending it.
The Fool Dies Last sounds intriguing!
I like the sound of Honey Roasted and Must Love Books Margie – I will see if the library has either of them. I like reading about beekeeping (something that I have always wanted to do); I’ve never even heard of honey roast coffee, so I’m intrigued by that!
Travel, how exciting for you Lesa.
I started off the week with a well-written debut in the psychological suspense category – In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead (2021).
Six friends, a ten-year college reunion and one unsolved murder. The story examines what it means to desire the lives of others regardless of the cost.
Harry’s Trees Jon Cohen (2018)
A novel of grief and healing. Part fairy tale and, at the same time, heartbreaking realism. Magic and story-telling and Olive the librarian. Wonderful!
Another librarian stars in The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins (2019)
Sarah Dove is no ordinary reader, the books sometimes speak to her. As the librarian in her quaint Southern town of Dove Pond, her gift helps place books in the hands of the perfect reader. Lesa wrote a nice review when the book was first published. A bit slow, but the characters are wonderful.
I just began reading Dana Stabenow’s latest, Disappearance Of A Scribe. The second book in The Eye Of Isis series set in the time of Cleopatra, Alexandria in 47 BC.
Safe travels, Lesa.
Not much reading time this week. I only finished Love and Saffron by Kim Fay. It’s been discussed here many times. I enjoyed it. It was especially interesting to read about flying by plane in the 60’s (complimentary cigars for the men upon departure!). I smiled at how exotic Mexican cuisine was when there seems to be a Mexican resident on almost every corner where I live.
I am halfway through The Collector’s Daughter by Gill Paul. Historical fiction about Eve Herbet, the first woman to be at the discovery of Tutankhamun. Her family also lived in Highclere Castle which is now mostly known for Downton Abbey. I’ve enjoyed going down the rabbit hole with links from the author’s notes.
We are having spring weather in Cincinnati. A good day to sit outside, read and enjoy the sunshine.
Happy Reading!
Hope that you have a good time. I overslept!
I finished the Frederick Sisters Are Living The Dream and loved it, Need to review it later today. Continued to listen to All the Light That We Cannot See..
Wiil start All That Fills Me.
Barely Awake, have my first appoinment with Glaucoma specialist in about two hours from now, it is supposed to be 2 to 3 hours of grueling tests and I have been dreading it. Will be very glad when it is over.
I do hope your appointment went well Carolee, it does indeed sound gruelling. I hope it will be the start of improvements for you, you must find these eye problems so frustrating. Take care.
Thank you, Rosemary, I survived the appoinment, I will need to have a stent put in each eye, one at time. It will not help my vision but it will hopefully slow down the glaucoma.
Oh dear, Carolee, I have no idea what it takes to put a stent in each eye, and I hope it is easier than it sounds. I hope the medical procedures go well for you.
I hope you can get those done soon Carolee. How does that work in the US? (Much as I support and love our wonderful NHS, we were grateful that my husband’s employer provides health insurance, as otherwise david would’ve had to wait longer for hip surgery.)
Good luck, I’m sure we’ll all be thinking of you.
Oh, Lesa, I have enjoyed every single NYC moment you and Linda have shared at Facebook. Thanks for taking us all along!
I have read a couple if very good books.
The one I have been waiting for arrived as an electronic ARC via the publisher and what a wonderful gift.
One of my all-time favorite writers ever is Sarah Addison Allen. This from NetGalley:
“From the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spells comes an enchanting tale filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go.
Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways. Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits—a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horeshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.
When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on Mallow Isalnd, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story, Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t written yet.”
It’s been seven years since Ms. Allen’s last book. It was worth the wait.
And another wonderful book of magical realism for you to add to your “coming soon” list is Heather Webber’s “In the Middle of Hickory Lane.”. This from NetGalley:
“Emme Wynn has wanted nothing more her whole life than to feel like part of a family. Having grown up on the run with her con artist mother, she’s been shuffled from town to town, drawn into bad situations, and has learned some unsavory habits that she’s tried hard to overcome. When her estranged grandmother tracks her down out of the blue and extends a job offer—helping to run her booth at an open-air marketplace in small-town Sweetgrass, Alabama—Emme is hopeful that she’ll finally be able to plant the roots she’s always dreamed of. But some habits are hard to break, and she risks her newfound happiness by keeping one big truth to herself.
Cora Bee Hazelton has her hands full with volunteering, gardening, her job as a color consultant and designer, and just about anything she can do to keep her mind off her painful past, a past that has resulted in her holding most everyone at arm’s length. The last thing she wants is to form close relationships only to have her heart broken yet again. But when she’s injured, she has no choice other than to let people into her life and soon realizes it’s going to be impossible to keep her heart safe—or her secrets hidden.
In the magical neighborhood garden in the middle of Hickory Lane, Emme and Cora Bee learn some hard truths about the past and themselves, the value of friends, family, and community, and most importantly, that true growth starts from within.”
And one more! Bookish People by Susan J. Coll.
I normally don’t seek out books that are reviewed as “funny.”. Often they just seem, to me, to be trying too hard. But I laughed hysterically and often reading Bookish People. And recognized a few folks. From NetGalley:
“A perfect storm of comedic proportions erupts in a DC bookstore over the course of one soggy summer week, punctuated by political turmoil, a celestial event, and a perpetually broken vacuum cleaner.
Independent bookstore owner Sophie Bernstein is burned out on books. Mourning the death of her husband, the loss of her favorite manager, her only child’s lack of aspiration, and the grim state of the world, she fantasizes about going into hiding in the secret back room of her store.
Meanwhile, renowned poet Raymond Chaucer has published a new collection, and rumors that he’s to blame for his wife’s suicide have led to national cancellations of his publicity tour. He intends to set the record straight—with an ultrafine Sharpie—but only one shop still plans to host him: Sophie’s.
Fearful of potential repercussions from angry customers, Sophie asks Clemi—bookstore events coordinator, aspiring novelist, and daughter of a famed literary agent—to cancel Raymond’s appearance. But Clemi suspects Raymond might be her biological father, and she can’t say no to the chance of finding out for sure.
This big-hearted screwball comedy features an intergenerational cast of oblivious authors and over-qualified booksellers—as well as a Russian Tortoise named Kurt Vonnegut Jr.—and captures the endearing quirks of some of the best kinds of people: the ones who love good books.”
I loved loved loved all three of these books.
Happy Reading, Thursday Folks!
Oh, Kaye, I have been looking every day on NetGalley to see if Other Birds is available (I assume that’s the book you were talking about first). It’s from St. Martin’s Press and they seem to approve all of my requests, so I’m hoping!
Margie, yes! Keep watching! And I can’t wait to hear what you think.
Good afternoon Lesa and everyone. I was happy to see your posts on Facebook Lesa, which showed what a great time you were having in New York City. I hope your journey home was as smooth as easy as possible.
It’s a beautiful day here in Aberdeenshire. The sky is blue, the birds were singing from an early hour, the crocuses are in bloom and the daffodils are about to follow. Earlier today I walked beside the river, and it really was beginning to feel like spring.
On Monday Nancy and I tried a new walk that starts right behind Dobbies Garden Centre in Aberdeen. Dobbies is at the end of a very long arterial road lined with industrial units and very run down housing, so it was a surprise to find that the minute we got to the back of the garden centre we were in open country – fields, farms, great views, hardly anyone around, and reasonable paths. We were looking for the ‘consumption dykes’ – huge walls of stones built from the boulders that labourers had to remove from the land when it was first cultivated in modern times. Some of these dykes are now surrounded by housing developments, some are still out in fields. One is said to have been so huge and wide that a carriage and horses could be driven along the top. It is quite something to realise that all of this work was done more or less by hand.
This week I finally finished ELIZABETHAN SPY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF WILLIAM ASHBY. It is a book that demands concentration and thought, and I can only read one of those once in a while – but this one definitely repaid my efforts. It was so interesting, and taught me a lot more about the time of the Armada, the plague (although contrary to what we were told at at school, there were serious outbreaks of plague across Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. It didn’t just happen in 1665 and get burnt out by the Great Fire of London in 1666!), Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, James VI & I, and the constant clash between the old Catholic and newly Protestant countries. Ashby, as an unwilling ambassador to Scotland, gives an outsider’s view of Edinburgh in particular, and it is not a pleasant one. And although France and Spain were forever trying to get Scotland on side to help them invade England, Ashby is quick to point out that Scotland itself was rife – especially in the North and around the border – with warring factions, clan disputes, and general in-house bickering. Nobody could be relied upon.
I am also about to finish GOOD BEHAVIOUR by Molly Keane, and I am loving this one so much. The story is narrated by Aroon St Charles, 57 year old daughter of an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family. As the book opens she is living with her aged mother and one servant in a shabby house that previously belonged to poor cousins, but Aroon then takes us back to her childhood at Temple Alice, a once grand dower house where she lived with her parents, her brother Hubert, and numerous servants.
Aroon thinks she knows everything about everyone, but we gradually realise that she has always had very little idea of what was going on under her nose. She is naive, has never been out in the world (she is taught – vaguely – by a governess, while her brother is of course sent away to school), and is burdened with a cold, distant and cruel mother. Whilst she is closer to her father – a man mostly obsessed with horses, hunting, and county life of the aristocracy in general – she never really achieves the approval and intimacy she wants. She has little social life and no love life, although she creates elaborate fantasies about a lover who in fact had quite different interests.
Good Behaviour gives a wonderful picture of a long-gone way of life that was indeed lived by the author’s own family. It’s very funny in parts, but there is a strong undercurrent of misery, deception, outdated entitlement, and the upper class’s inbred determination to present ‘good behaviour’ at all times, and to conceal their feelings, cares and, of course, their rapidly increasing financial struggles, not only from the world but also from themselves.
I also wanted to share some author news! When I mentioned ADELE GERAS’S book LOVE, OR NEAREST OFFER, some weeks ago, Sharon kindly commented that she had read another of Adele’s books, APRICOTS AT MIDNIGHT, with her daughters, and the story had sparked her own love of quilting. I eventually remembered to pass this on to Adele, and she was so thrilled – I copied and pasted Sharon’s comments for her, and she was so grateful. Adele wrote:
‘How absolutely lovely! What a very wonderful message yours was! I love the idea of Apricots starting everyone off on their own quilt journeys…..Thanks so much for writing. You’ve made my day!’
She also asked me to let you all know that she has a new book out under her pseudonym, Hope Adams. It is called DANGEROUS WOMEN and is set in 1841, on a boat transporting 180 women to Tasmania (then a British colony). They are ‘convicts’ but have generally done very little wrong – they are fundamentally just poor and desperate, often the victims of domestic abuse. Also on board is 23 year old Kezia Hayter, cousin to the Queen’s portraitist and a woman committeed to ‘the betterment of those less fortunate.’ Kezia decided to ask some of the women to join her in making a quilt; this project starts to bring them together – but then one of the quilters is murdered. Kezia participates in the search for the murderer.
Although the murder is fiction, as are the back stories of the women, the boat, the voyage and Kezia all did exist. The women who were actually on that voyage still have descendants living in Tasmania and Australia today. The book is already out in paperback in the US and will shortly be published here.
So that was the excitement for this week!
On the television we finished watching COLLATERAL (Carey Mulligan, John Sim, Billie Piper), which was a superior sort of police story involving murder, refugees, people trafficking, the British army and the way it treats women, and M15 and its refusal to work with the police. It was all very well acted; we enjoyed it.
Now I plan to watch the new adaptation of THE IPCRESS FILE, which has had many good reviews.
We also have a new series of GRANTCHESTER – I watched the first episode last night. One of the reviews said ‘there is no longer any pretence that this is about anything other than Tom’s love life’ !! And to a certain extent that was true – he was certainly involved in plenty of extra-curricular activities this week. But all of the usual characters were also back – including lovely Leonard, who has now taken a very different career path.
On the radio I listened to John Moffatt as Poirot in DEATH ON THE NILE – it had been recorded in 1997, so the cast included such long gone luminaries as Stratford Johns, Rosemary Leach and Donald Sinden.
I am also listening to a new series, MAKING HISTORY: THE STORYTELLERS WHO SHAPED THE PAST by Richard Cohen. I have only heard the first episode so far, which was about Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy and Tacitus. I did Latin to A-level (last school exams) and studied the works of Tacitus. The other names are familiar to me, but only as names, I know nothing about them – and we all found Tacitus as dull as ditchwater. This programme, however, really brought these men to life; Cohen has dug up lots of very human things about them (eg some of them just made it up because they knew what people wanted to hear). Each episode is only 15 minutes, so easy to listen to, and I will continue. The next one is ‘The Muslim View of History’, and Cohen works his way through the centuries to end with ‘Truth telling versus Patriotism’ in the 1980s, government cover-ups, what TV history programmes should say, and what a historian should, ideally, be.
Finally, in Charlie news – I was out yesterday with a friend whom I hadn’t seen for some time, and she told me that her own (rescue) Siamese cat had stayed at the cattery to which Charlie is going while we are on holiday, and that hers was very happy there. He had had to be there for two whole months, as she was moving back from France. So I was pleased to have a personal recommendation for Charlie’s holiday accommodation! He is enjoying the sunshine and spending his afternoons stretched out in front of the balcony doors. What a life he has.
Have a good week all!
Rosemary
That is exciting Rosemary! I will be looking for her book. Thank you for sharing.
I’m reading the last of Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder books – Fallen. This one is particularly violent with the victim being killed by a beating with a baseball bat. Kate has her work cut out for her since there are simply no clues as to why this happened or who might have done it. I really enjoy how the author develops the story and gets to the root of the mystery, and there is always some sort of twist at the end that changes everything. There will be a new book out in July, so you can bet I’ll be on top of that! I can’t recommend this series enough.
I forgot – I’m also listening to Cleo Coyle’s Honey Roasted. I won’t summarize since y’all have already done that. It’s an enjoyable mystery that seems to flow well in the series. I do hope that Clare and Mike find their ways back to each other so we eventually see a wedding!
Sandie, I recently got an ARC of the next Linda Castillo book from NetGalley and am looking forward to reading the latest in the series.
I’m starting DEATH IN A BLACKOUT, the new World War II set mystery from Jessica Ellicott.
Mark, ,that reminds me of the great OUT OF THE BLACKOUT by the late Robert Barnard. Terrific book.
Have a great vacation, Lesa!
This week I read:
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by YU Chen; In the 1970’s collections of Soviet science fiction were pretty popular, now it’s the Chi-Com’s turn. I never much liked the Soviet books, and this wasn’t any better.
Nimbus by Bernard Voss; a weird tale about a fox grieving for its dead mate. The fox never seems very fox-like to me. Maybe I read too many fairy tales about sly foxes when I was a kid.
Fake by Twist Phelan; A woman private security agent tries to discover who faked life saving vaccines destined for Africa, before they start hitting the public.To be honest, I thought it was going to be about fake Gucci bags or something.
Birthdays are Murder by Cindy Sample; The cousin of Sample’s other detective finds a body while working a child’s birthday party, and is the primary suspect. Plus her daughter, a police officer is on the case. So she decides to investigate. Very good, but obviously written before the pandemic,even if it is a new release.
Play The Hand You’re Dealt by Scott W. Cook; A PI is hired when a cruise shipline owner receives threatening messages. It starts slow, but soon enough is moving pretty fast. Not as crazy as a lot of Florida novels, though.
First Patients by Rod Tanchanco; An anthology about the discovery of major medical procedures, like the invention of the pacemaker, vaccines, and blood transfusions. A celebration of science and medicine, but also raises questions about the failures of Fauci and friends.
Hot and Sour Suspects by Vivien Chen; In the forward the author reveals she was battling cancer when she wrote this book. She is remission now, thank goodness. Anyway, her sleuth, Lana Lee runs a speed dating event in her family’s restaurant (Do people still do this? seems very 1990’s) A friend of hers shows up, and apparently finds someone special. A few hours later, she finds his dead body. Lana starts investigating, even though the friend tries to stop her. One of the better cozy series around.
Late again, as usual. We went out early this morning for breakfast, then took books to Planned Parenthood for the book sale, then did grocery shopping.
Since last week I have finished THE MOST CONTAGIOUS GAME by Catherine Aird. That is her only standalone book, and it was about a man investigating the skeleton that he found in a hidden room in his house (which turns out to be a priest hole that had been plastered over. The mystery was not as good as other books by Aird, in my opinion, but the story of the man’s research into the history of his new home and his settling into the small town he and his wife had moved to was excellent.
Now reading OUT by Natsuo Kirino, a dark, gritty mystery / thriller. It also has a couple of gruesome chapters which were not fun to read. I probably would have skipped the book had I known in advance. But I am continuing because otherwise I like how the story is told.
Also reading DEATH LIKES IT HOT by Edgar Box (a pseudonym for Gore Vidal). I am reading it for the 1954 Club, which will run for a week in April on the Stuck in a Book blog. It is the third of three mystery books that Vidal wrote in the early 1950s, all about a publicist who also ends up investigating murders. This one is set in the Hamptons.
Lesa, I hope you had a great time in New York, and that the airplane trip goes well.
Hi Lesa — safe travels! I’m reading The Fourth Quadrant by W. Micheal Gear, the second book in the Wyoming Chronicles. This is a telling of an apocalyptic world disaster which results in a dystopian type chaos in the U.S. Wyoming, of course, is the shining example of how to throw up walls and function in a newly dysfunctional world. It’s pretty creepy because it feels like something that could really happen, especially with current world disasters unfolding.
Have a safe trip home, Lesa. I am currently reading The Darkest Place by Phillip Margolin and A Perfect Bind by Dorothy St James.
My current read is NO ACCIDENT by Steven F. Havill.